High-Def Digest: The Bonus ViewNicole Kidman Archives - High-Def Digest: The Bonus View

The Goldfinch Review: Clipped Wings

Jason Gorber — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 16:00:47 +0000

Director John Crowley’s last film was the highly-praised Brooklyn. His follow-up, The Goldfinch, is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2014 novel by Donna Tartt. It’s an ambitious, sprawling story about a famous Dutch painting, a young survivor of a terrorist bombing, and his struggles following the incident as he grows to adulthood. British playwright Peter...

The post The Goldfinch Review: Clipped Wings appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

The Upside Review: Down with Mediocrity

Deirdre Crimmins — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 13:00:16 +0000

The Upside is a pandering mashup of nearly every scrap of emotional shorthand in a cinematic dustbin. Though the effect is not wholly unpleasant, it’s dull, disingenuous, and just as funny as a polite joke from a cashier to pass the time at the checkout counter. The Upside is an English language adaptation of the...

The post The Upside Review: Down with Mediocrity appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

Aquaman Review: A Fish Khal Drogo

Jason Gorber — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 18:00:15 +0000

James Wan’s Aquaman benefits greatly from lowered expectations. The very notion of this character getting a big-screen solo effort always seemed kind of silly. Entourage took the piss out of the watery superhero years ago, and the trailer did little more than spout exposition while throwing in Avatar-style eye candy. The whole things looked to...

The post Aquaman Review: A Fish Khal Drogo appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

TIFF Journal: Boy Erased

Jason Gorber — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 17:00:21 +0000

In Boy Erased, Joel Edgerton directs a coming-of-age drama about conversion therapy, the dubious and often destructive practice of attempting to “cure” homosexuality through a combination of half-baked psychological practices and religious rites. Based in part on the memoir of the same name by Gerrard Conley, the film stars Lucas Hedges as Jared Eamons, the...

The post TIFF Journal: Boy Erased appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

TIFF Journal: Destroyer

Philip Brown — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 17:00:04 +0000

Destroyer is a hardboiled bit of crime pulp that you’ve seen a thousand times before. Of course, the filmmakers know that and hope that the ingenuity comes in the telling and the details. Unfortunately, director Karyn Kusama’s approach is a fractured narrative to withhold secrets and sneak in redemption to a world where none is...

The post TIFF Journal: Destroyer appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ Review: Slow-Burn Horrors and Deadpan Humor

Philip Brown — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 19:00:23 +0000

Darkly comedic Greek provocateur Yorgos Lanthimos has slowly been carving a place for himself in the international filmmaking community with such twisted treats as ‘Dogtooth’ and ‘The Lobster’. The director is a pop surrealist in the David Lynch mold, who uses art house filmmaking tempo and language to entertain through dread, anguish, and the darkest...

The post ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ Review: Slow-Burn Horrors and Deadpan Humor appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

TIFF Journal: ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’

Philip Brown — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 15:00:45 +0000

With his English language debut ‘The Lobster’, ‘Dogtooth’ director Yorgos Lanthimos proved that he would lose none of his morbid surrealism or uncompromising cinematic style simply by working with movie stars. His follow-up, ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’, features famous faces once again, but somehow even less hope, humor, or obvious commercial appeal. It’s...

The post TIFF Journal: ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

‘The Beguiled’ (2017) Review: Slow-Burn Psychodrama in Pretty Dresses

Philip Brown — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 16:00:36 +0000

Reduced down to a simple logline, ‘The Beguiled’ sounds like a cheeky, sleazy, silly picture. That’s likely because when Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood made a movie out of the Thomas Cullinan novel in the 1970s, they took that approach. Now it’s Sofia Coppola’s turn, and she’s transformed the sordid tale into something sumptuously beautiful,...

The post ‘The Beguiled’ (2017) Review: Slow-Burn Psychodrama in Pretty Dresses appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

Weekend Roundtable: Worst Movies by 2017 Oscar Nominees

Josh Zyber — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 20:00:38 +0000

When Oscar time comes around, it’s sometimes useful to remember that the nominees haven’t always been associated with the type of work that gets awards. Honestly, many of them have churned out some real crap in their day. In anticipation of this weekend’s ceremony, let’s review the worst movies made by the Oscar-nominated actors and...

The post Weekend Roundtable: Worst Movies by 2017 Oscar Nominees appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

‘Big Little Lies’ Pilot Recap: “What’d We Say About Shooting Mom Before Noon?”

Josh Zyber — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 17:00:29 +0000

HBO’s new drama series ‘Big Little Lies’ is a prestige production stacked with multiple Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy winners and nominees both in front of and behind the camera. Ultimately, that seems like kind of a waste of talent for what turns out to be an overly-arty and pretentious knockoff of ‘Desperate Housewives’. Promoted...

The post ‘Big Little Lies’ Pilot Recap: “What’d We Say About Shooting Mom Before Noon?” appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

‘Lion’ Review: King of the Weepies

Philip Brown — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 17:00:29 +0000

The end of the year is a time for “based on a true story” weepies designed to keep the Kleenex industry in business and gobble up easy award nominations. Most of them stink and work only on the easily manipulated and/or Oscar voters. However, a few transcend all the aggressive heartstring tugging because they’re special...

The post ‘Lion’ Review: King of the Weepies appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.

‘Genius’ Review: Hardly…

Philip Brown — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 16:00:01 +0000

During the movie ‘Genius’, I wondered if I wasn’t watching a straight-faced parody of bio-pic clichés. Movie stars saunter across the screen playing famous American authors, none of whom are American so they seem to be in a competition over who can spit out the worst accent. Long passages of dialogue feature characters discussing their...

The post ‘Genius’ Review: Hardly… appeared first on High-Def Digest: The Bonus View.